Ecuador Petroecuador Crude Output -68% Wed Due To Protests

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QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Ecuador's state-run oil company, Petroecuador, saw crude output fall 68% early Wednesday due to protests in Orellana and Sucumbios provinces.

"We had problems in all of our oil fields. At 1100 GMT our output was 63,400 barrels, but now the situation, sure, is worse," a Petroecuador official told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

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Since last week, Ecuadorean security forces had been protecting the fields, but they allowed protesters to enter and take the sites to avoid bloodshed as long as demonstrators promised to cut output without damaging production facilities.

Since Sunday morning, residents from the two provinces have blocked the main access roads to oil fields in the zone, and have also taken over the area's principal airports in Orellana and Sucumbios. The moves have prevented oil equipment and other supplies needed to maintain oil production in the two provinces from reaching the sites, from which 75%-80% of state and around 50% of private oil production in Ecuador originates.

NASDAQ

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1. Ecuador restarts SOTE oil pipeline -source

QUITO, Ecuador, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean state oil company Petroecuador restarted its Transecuadorean (SOTE) crude pipeline on Wednesday after operations were shut down by protesting residents of two Amazonian oil provinces, a company official said.

The SOTE pipeline, which normally pumps around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), was shut on Tuesday afternoon by protesters demanding foreign oil companies operating in the region provide financing for infrastructure projects and more job opportunities.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-08-17T145757Z_01_N17242617_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-ECUADOR-PIPELINE-URGENT.XML

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2. Bushler would slaughter them n/t